[TR] OD Conversion Notes

[acekraut11 at aol.com]

 Hi List,

Over the last week work was completed on my 71 TR6 that included installing a new OD gearbox, lightened flywheel, Gunst bearing and Borg & Beck clutch components.? I had posted a question to the list regarding what experiences the list members had with a Borg & Beck bent finger clutch installation with the Gunst throw-out bearing since I already had the B&B clutch and TRF recommended not using the B & B set-up with the Gunst bearing.? I received two responses, one with no bearing noise and one with.? I took great care to make sure that I used the included dowel pins, and a clutch alignment tool to make sure everything was centered.? The result is that the bearing makes no noise to this point.

I am very happy to report that all the components are in and the OD and various components all work very well with no apparent problems to date.? Insert big sigh of relief here.? Major thanks must go to list member Rick Patton, who was kind enough to lend me a garage bay, his lift, and most importantly, his experience and support.? He and his wife will be treated to dinner this coming weekend at the British Invasion as a small measure of my gratitude.

I thought I might pass along what I believe might be some interesting tidbits and observations now that everything is done.

The flywheel was lightened from 28 pounds to about 23 pounds.? Not a huge amount of weight savings but I didnt want to weaken the flywheel since my feet are rather close to its spinning mass.? There may be a slight improvement in performance with the weight savings but considering all the changes to the driveline it is hard to pinpoint what component is responsible for what.

The first time the everything was installed the clutch would not release.? Taking everything apart revealed that the clutch fork had slipped off the bronze carrier during the pushing and pulling while installing the gearbox and slid in behind the bronze carrier, moving the bearing forward enough so it wouldnt release after everything was tightened up.? After discovering the problem the solution was to use baling wire to hold the cross shaft in a fixed position so the fork could not slip off the carrier.? I would suggest this tip to anyone installing a gearbox with any type of bearing.

The gearbox was the original 4 speed gearbox that was original to the car with a Volvo J-type added to gearbox.? Unfortunately,? when I attempted to trim some off the end of the speedo cable I trimmed off just a bit too much and the speedo doesnt work now.? A new one has been ordered but I will find out then if the speedo is reading correctly.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of interior work is refitting the transmission tunnel to the car.? Getting all the bolts to line up and hold it down is pretty near impossible.? I had purchased a new plastic tunnel from TRF and this was the first time installing it.? All the holes in it were a perfect match, nice job TRF.? But installing it was next to impossible.? I decided to take a slightly different route after getting some of the bolts in but having trouble with the rest.? From under the car I put the bolts in so the head of the bolt stuck up slightly, allowing the me to push the tunnel down over the protruding bolts.? Then I used a flat washer and a nyloc nut to hold everything down.? I could not install the two bolts farthest back from the bottom so they were installed from the top.? I had already put the tunnel in and tightened a few bolts down so I put the rest on from under the car but the bolts could have been installed quite easily from inside the car when the gearbox was out.

And finally




Aaron Cropley
71 TR6 (Throttle Body Injection!)
http://www.triumphowners.com/108
Topsham, Maine

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